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saw a video some months ago showing how the Russians deal with them - they put them back in their boat and blew it up - except for one who they sent back to tell his mates what happenned - they won't be doing that again in a hurry

If these stories are correct I can see some useless legal eagle sharpening their pencil and checking how much their share of the compensation will be when they sue the company's for infringing the human rights of those poor pirates who are only going about their innocent work.
Regards

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saw a video some months ago showing how the Russians deal with them - they put them back in their boat and blew it up - except for one who they sent back to tell his mates what happenned - they won't be doing that again in a hurry

You could say "That is the only language they understand". But unfortunately they are just like cockroaches, they keep returning. Maybe they could be targeted with drones before they set off once their base is located.

saw a video some months ago showing how the Russians deal with them - they put them back in their boat and blew it up - except for one who they sent back to tell his mates what happenned - they won't be doing that again in a hurry

Just so as you know - it wasn't true - they did sink it but no one was on board.

Of course I suppose they could have if they wanted to - but that would have made every single russian seaman a dead cert target (pun intentional)

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Do you really think they'd go back to fishing after the comparitively easy life of a pirate?

John T

Well they would have a viable and sustainable alternative - at the moment they have sweet bugger all - not really an excuse for piracy mark you but the choices are a bit limited at the moment. Plus of course a stable Somalia would mean it could actively police the problem - something noticably absent at present.

__________________This is the Central Scrutinizer
All your base are belong to us
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Well they would have a viable and sustainable alternative - at the moment they have sweet bugger all - not really an excuse for piracy mark you but the choices are a bit limited at the moment. Plus of course a stable Somalia would mean it could actively police the problem - something noticably absent at present.

Actually on a slightly serious note - while it is a bit towards the Utopian to think we can bring peace to Somalia - in recent years we have had a 0% success rate in every attempt elsewhere we have got involved - to my mind the only effective solution to rid that part of the world of pirates is for Somalia to get some sort of stability in order to deal with the problem from within and to be able to carry out a bit of hearts and minds in the area - where understandably the pirates are seen as something like folk heroes at the moment. Between mercenaries, pirates, navies, yahoos and out and out nutjobs it is rapidly becoming like the wild west out there - I just cant see any winners as it is I'm afraid. Needs a bit of a new approach - what that is I'm not sure though.

__________________This is the Central Scrutinizer
All your base are belong to us
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Actually on a slightly serious note - while it is a bit towards the Utopian to think we can bring peace to Somalia - in recent years we have had a 0% success rate in every attempt elsewhere we have got involved - to my mind the only effective solution to rid that part of the world of pirates is for Somalia to get some sort of stability in order to deal with the problem from within and to be able to carry out a bit of hearts and minds in the area - where understandably the pirates are seen as something like folk heroes at the moment. Between mercenaries, pirates, navies, yahoos and out and out nutjobs it is rapidly becoming like the wild west out there - I just cant see any winners as it is I'm afraid. Needs a bit of a new approach - what that is I'm not sure though.

I would be quite content letting them butcher each other, and then, whenever we run into them out at sea, we butcher them there.

"carry out a bit of hearts and minds in the area - where understandably the pirates are seen as something like folk heroes at the moment."

Good idea, SM, let us know when you get there and we'll have an SN whipround to pay your ransom.

John T

No thats not fair, I only make a comment on what seems to be the heart of the problem. These nutjobs are pulling in money, courtesy of us, into an otherwise war torn hell hole - if you were living there and had been brought up to believe that the west was extremely rich and didnt care about you - how would you view them? This is an extremely serious point not just a bit of counter arguement. This is the very sort of situation that is the genesis for so many problems that we face today and an absolute breeding ground for extremism of every kind.

Now make no mistake - I have no time for pirates in any way shape or form, they most definitely are not my folk hero Robin Hood types but I am far from convinced that using the big hammer is the way forward - it just sets us up for yet another conflict later.

I am also at pains to point out that I am not 100% sure what the right way is but I do think it must involve a stable Somalia

Edit: By way of an interesting point -Just got this of the dreaded Wikipedia - so I wont take it as gospel but it does highlight a much bigger problem, the fact that in general pirates are actually pretty good for the local communities in a way that governments and foreign powers most certainly have not been. Again I am not saying piracy is good but in order to truly get rid of it once and for all you have to offer an viable alternative (other than the ever popular life or death one) and maintain the positive effects the pirates have provided ashore - not least of all the ability to catch fish.

"There have been both positive and negative effects of the pirates' economic success. Local residents have complained that the presence of so many armed men makes them feel insecure, and that their free spending ways cause wild fluctuations in the local exchange rate. Others fault them for excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages and khat.[87]

On the other hand, many other residents appreciate the rejuvenating effect that the pirates' on-shore spending and re-stocking has had on their impoverished towns, a presence which has often provided jobs and opportunity when there were none. Entire hamlets have in the process been transformed into veritable boomtowns, with local shop owners and other residents using their gains to purchase items such as generators -- "allowing full days of electricity, once an unimaginable luxury."[91]

Local fishermen in the Malindi area of Kenya to the south have reported their largest catches in forty years, catching hundreds of kilos of fish and earning fifty times the average daily wage as a result. They attribute the recent abundance of marine stock to the pirates scaring away the foreign fishing trawlers, which it is claimed have for decades deprived local dhows of a livelihood. Marine biologists agree, saying that the indicators are that the local fishery is recovering because of the lack of commercial scale fishing.[92]

The Somali piracy appears to have a positive impact on the problem of overfishing in Somali waters by foreign vessels, as a comparison has been made with the situation in Tanzania further to the south, which suffers from the same problem, and also lacks the means to enforce the protection and regulation of its territorial waters. There, the catches have dropped to dramatic low levels, whereas in Somalia they have risen back to more acceptable levels since the beginning of the piracy"

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